


Crush

by starrkeys



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Alternate Universe - High School, Ashton is mentioned once, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-29
Updated: 2015-10-29
Packaged: 2018-04-28 18:49:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5101763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starrkeys/pseuds/starrkeys
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Michael likes hair dye. Luke likes Michael. Good thing Luke works at a pharmacy.</p><p>Or the five times they “met” and the one time introductions were actually made.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Crush

1  
The bell over the door tinkled obnoxiously and Luke looked up from his book, pasting on a smile. It was automatic now; he’d worked at the pharmacy for long enough. If a similar bell rang anywhere else, he’d probably jump to attention, smile widely and greet a nonexistent customer.

“Hello! Welcome to Penniman’s!” he exclaimed.

Then he saw who it was.

The boy had red hair so bright it was bordering on unpleasantness, pale skin and a Green Day shirt. He had earbuds in and was busy with his phone. He hadn’t noticed Luke or his fake cheer (which was probably a good thing, Luke had to admit to himself). He was undeniably very, very attractive.

Luke tried to follow the boy with his eyes surreptitiously. He said a little prayer that there was no one else in the tiny store to distract him and make him actually do his job.

His job at the pharmacy was, for the most part, exceptionally boring. He sold primarily to stooped elderly men and giggling gaggles of girls buying make up. Then, every once and a while, something like this would happen. Luke lived for moments like this. This made up for the discomfort when someone he knew from school came in to buy condoms. This made up for all the people with colds coughing and sneezing all over him in their quest for cough drops.

The boy ambled between aisles. He seemed sure of where he was going. He’d probably been to the store before but certainly not during Luke’s shift as he would’ve remembered somebody with a face like that. He was just exactly Luke’s type.

He stopped in front of the hair dyes. He stared at the rows of shiny boxes. And he stared. He was taking an awfully long time. Granted, this gave Luke plenty of time to gawk at the boy unnoticed but he could only see the flame of red hair and nothing interesting like his face or his bum.

The bell over the door rang out again. Blushing like a kid with his hand caught in the cookie jar, Luke turned to face the new customer. “Hello! Welcome to Penniman’s!”

The middle aged woman just continued scowling and made her way over to the shampoos.

Luke peeked out of the corner of his eye as the red haired boy started walking to the counter, a decision apparently having been made.

“Found everything okay?” Luke asked, his good training kicking in.

“Yeah, thanks,” the boy said, pulling his earbuds out with one hand and placing the box of hair dye onto the checkout counter. It was lavender, one of the most fun colours they had in stock. For the most part, people bought natural colours. But lavender…

“Lavender’d be good on you,” Luke said, scanning the package. He was trying to keep it cool, trying to not act like a complete weirdo but it was difficult. He sucked on his lip ring.

“I think so, yeah. It’s one of the ones I haven’t tried yet.”

“It’s 12.60,” Luke said.

The boy fished a twenty out of his pocket and handed it to Luke, who counted out his change carefully.

“Here you go… do you need a bag?”

“No, that’s okay. Thanks.” The soon-to-be lavender haired boy smiled and waved with the box of hair dye. “See you.”

Then, placing his earbuds back in his ears, he exited the store, allowing Luke plenty of opportunity to check out his bum (it was a good one) before he had to serve the next customer.

2  
It was late afternoon on a Saturday and Penniman’s Pharmacy was just a half hour to being closed for the evening. Luke had finished his book earlier and texted Ashton to come visit him (to no avail; Ashton almost never came to see Luke, even when he was going crazy from boredom. What were best friends for if they didn’t help one another out? Luke should really get a new best friend).

Luke spared another glance at the clock. Was it too early to get the vacuum out? Probably. He sighed, drumming his fingers on the counter. There was probably something that he could be doing. But in the five months since he got the job, he had learned just to do what was absolutely required of him. Anything more and his soul would probably die.

He should have brought his chemistry notes; he had a test on Monday. He looked at the clock again. Nobody ever came in to the store this late. Nobody ever had a pressing need for soap at seven thirty in the evening. He couldn’t even talk to Jennifer the pharmacist because she was already in the back cleaning up for the day.

The bell above the door dinged as it was pushed open, allowing a gust of cool air and a boy to enter. He was bundled up in a huge hoodie and lavender strands of hair peaked out from under the hood. Luke hadn’t actively been thinking about the boy since he was last in the shop but all the same… he was certainly nice to look at.

He pushed down the hood and smiled at Luke. No music this time. “Cold, innit?”

“Yeah,” Luke said, though truthfully he didn’t really know as he hadn’t left the shop since noon when his shift started. He probably would have agreed to anything the boy said; his face seemed to render Luke incapable of original thought. “D’you need help with anything?”

“Nope. Just my usual,” he said, already on his way to the hair dye section in the back.

Luke wondered if there was any way he could mention this beautiful, hair-changing boy to his coworker Calum without sounding creepy. He’s obviously been to the store more than just the twice that Luke’s seen him. Maybe Calum even knew him from school. He certainly didn’t go to the local high school and he seemed the type to go to the arts school in the city. Maybe if he just asked him about classmates? They looked like they could move in the same circles. He was wearing a Green Day shirt that one time.

The boy was turning around and coming back. Luke hurriedly pretended to be busy with something under the counter. Obsessive staring did always come off a bit creepy.

“Green,” Luke commented as he scanned the box. “Certainly original. Don’t think I’ve ever sold a box of this stuff.”

“I’m all for originality,” the boy said. He grabbed a plain chocolate bar from the rack in front of the counter. “It’s going to be on debit.”

“’Kay. Do you usually dye your hair every month? Or is this the exception to the rule?” Luke asked, gesturing at the PIN pad for Hair Dye Guy to use.

“This is an exception, actually. I usually give it about six weeks. Turns out I don’t really like violet,” he replied.

As the receipt printed and Luke put the chocolate and the dye in a bag, he tried to think of something else to say. “Doesn’t that completely destroy your hair?”

“Yep,” he said with a smile, seemingly unaffected by this fact. “Totally worth it though.”

“Are you just going to dye your scalp once you have no hair?”

The boy rolled his eyes. “Whatever. I’ll find some other way to keep it interesting. Reckon I could get a lip piercing if I’m really desperate. Apparently all the cool kids are doing it.”

On impulse, Luke sucked his own lip ring into his mouth. “Reckon it’d look good on you.”

“Thanks. I should probably be going,” the boy said, gesturing vaguely over his shoulder.

“’til the next time,” Luke said.

“’til the next time,” he echoed. Then he was out the door again.

Luke checked the time. It was time to get the vacuum out. The last half hour didn’t go by nearly as slowly as he thought.

3  
Luke was finished his shift and walking away from the store the next time he met the hair dye connoisseur. It was barely a week since he’d last seen him. The green hair looked good on him. Not as good as the red, but good. All colours probably looked good on him. His hair was fluffy and though it was probably rough from all the bleaching and dyeing, Luke really wanted to touch it.

“You can’t possibly be changing your hair again, can you?” Luke asked as they approached each other.

He smiled and shook his head. “No. I live ‘round the corner and my friend’s always bugging me to go visit him.”

“Calum?”

The boy nodded. “Yeah. Best friends, me and him.”

“I’m impressed. My best friend ignores any and all requests for visits. He’s a bit of a shit, to be honest.”

“Well, maybe I’ll come visit you too sometimes.”

Luke grinned. “You’d better; now I’ll be expecting you.”

“Yeah, I’ll see you around.” He began to edge around Luke and back away toward Penniman’s.

“I’ll be upset if you don’t!” Luke called after him.

The boy gave a wave over his shoulder and Luke began on his walk home again. It was an unexpected good ending to his day.

The boy was pretty and nice and seemed like he actually wanted to talk to Luke. Now the only thing left to do was learn his name. Cal’s been holding out on him with this one. He’d mentioned a best friend, but not that he was absolutely, completely attractive.

4  
The boy did do as he said he would and showed up one afternoon soon after that. Unfortunately, they were actually fairly busy and they only got to exchange about five words while he purchased a chocolate bar and an iTunes gift card.

Then he was gone and Luke was selling a Happy Birthday, Mom! card to a man with two little girls at his side.

Their one minute exchange was enough to fuel Luke for the rest of his shift (and all the way home too).

5  
One of the aspects of the job that Luke didn’t like was emptying the garbage bins. He had to collect it all, then go out back to the dumpsters (rain or snow, hot or cold) to dump the bags. For one thing, it required movement and for another, he was weak. The owner, Michelle, always insisted they did this before she went home for the night, so she could watch the front counter.

Luke came back inside, rubbing his hands together against the chill. He should probably get gloves. He washed his hands before going back out front through the EMPLOYEES ONLY door.

The currently green-haired boy was studying the magazine rack, chocolate bar in hand. When he saw Luke, he grinned and continued looking at what appeared to be Chatelaine magazine.

“Remember to put bags in all the bins, eh, Luke?” Michelle said as Luke replaced her behind the counter.

He nodded like a good employee. “Of course.”

“Good.” Michelle said before retreating into to her office in the back. Once she disappeared, the boy stopped browsing the magazines and drew near to the counter.

“So, how’s it going, Luke?” he asked, shoving the last of his chocolate in his mouth.

“Fine. Do you want me to throw that out for you?” he asked, gesturing at the wrapper.

“Don’t forget to put a bag in the bin first,” he said, handing off his waste to the Luke.

“I can tell you think you’re funny, but you’re really, really not,” Luke said, grinning like a madman anyway. He wasn’t funny but Luke really couldn’t help it. He liked him too much not to find every word out of his mouth hilarious.

“I don’t know what you mean. I am hilarious. Funny is my middle name.”

“More like Dork. I—“ Luke started. He still didn’t know his name. He was still just Hair Guy. “What’s your—“

“Luke! No visitors while you’re working,” Michelle exclaimed as she came back out in her jacket, bag slung over her shoulder.

The blond flushed. “Yeah, I know, sorry. He was just leaving.” He looked pointedly at the boy in front of him.

“Yeah, not to worry, I was just leaving. I’ll see you later Luke,” he said, backing away with a small smile.

Luke smiled at Michelle, trying to look as innocent and apologetic as he could. He really was sorry; he didn’t like breaking the rules. “Have a good night, Michelle.”

“You too, Luke. Make sure all the lights are out,” she said as she straightened a display of necklaces on her way out the door.

“Of course.” He kept a smile on his face but inside his heart was sinking. Michelle’s timing could not have been worse. He would have to settle for Hair Guy, at least until the next time he saw the other boy.

+1  
Luke was relieved when his shift finally came to a close at three one Saturday. It was fun working with Calum for a couple of hours; the two were even becoming friends but that didn’t stop Saturday from being their busiest day. It was exhausting, smiling at all those customers. It also felt like forever since his lunch break and he was starving.

Luke changed out of his uniform as quickly as he could before walking back through the shop to go home.

“Luke!” Calum called from behind the counter. There was a very familiar green-haired boy with him. “This is my friend, the one I was telling you about. Michael.”

The boy -Michael- grinned at Luke. “We’ve met,” he said. “I bought some hair dye off of him.”

Luke nodded, words failing him. His name was Michael. It suited him, he thought. It was about time he learned his name. “Yeah, once or twice.” Inside, his stomach was doing backflips and he hoped it wasn’t showing on his face.

“Yeah, at least a couple of times.”

Calum was eyeing the two of them with a calculating expression on his face. “You guys should have something in common. Music taste, at least.”

“Do we? What fun. Why don’t I walk you out, Luke?” Michael asked, all but ignoring who he originally came to the store to see.

“Yeah, okay. Sounds good.” His stomach showed no sign of putting an end to its acrobatics.

“Alright. See you later, Cal. Me and Lukey here have things to talk about,” Mike said as he led the way to the door, Luke following mutely in his wake.

“Well, bye!” Calum said. “Not like I’m your best friend or anything.”

Michael just waved and held the door open for Luke.

“So… Lukey,” Michael started. They continued walking, the green-haired boy showing no sign of finishing his sentence.

“So… Mikey,” Luke copied.

“Mind if I walk you home?”

“Not at all.” It was long overdue, really. Luke was smiling all the way home. Michael really was just as awesome as he’d imagined.


End file.
